The desk was piled high with scrap paper, precise alchemy diagrams, and all sorts of computational data, as well as several open volumes of ancient reference books.
One of them was turned to a Chapter about spatial construction, and the adjacent page was filled with Ron’s densely packed annotations.
Ron rubbed his eyes. He hadn’t slept for several days in a row.
Since arriving at the Crystal Tower, he had devoted almost all his spare time to the improvement of the Simulation Battle Device.
"I knew Master hadn’t rested yet."
Ailan’s voice came from behind him, and she held a cup of tea exuding a faint natural aroma:
"Perhaps you could take a short rest."
Ron took the teacup, sipped it, feeling the warmth coursing through his body, dissipating some of his fatigue.
"Time waits for no one, Ailan."
He replied softly:
"Especially when one is just a step away from achieving results."
His gaze fell on a gemstone on the table.
It was the "Void Gem" obtained from a stone-gambling shop in Town 69.
Its surface was presenting a profound indigo color, with starlight seemingly flowing within.
Beside the "Void Gem" lay another equally precious congealed object—the "Heart-devouring Stone,"
which at this moment was showing an eerie dark green, pulsing faintly as if it were a living creature’s heart.
These two gems had already become key materials in the improvement process of the Simulation Battle Device.
Ron’s thoughts drifted back to the scene several months ago when he obtained the blueprint of the Simulation Battle Device from Soron.
At that time, his heart was filled with hope for improvement and innovation.
"It was far more difficult than I imagined..."
During more than a month on the airship, he tried countless possible improvement plans, only to hit wall after wall.
The biggest problem was energy supply and spatial constraints.
Traditional Simulation Battle Devices required the space of an entire room and a complex energy network maintained by multiple alchemists.
How to reduce it to portable size while maintaining functionality was an unprecedented challenge.
"Do you remember that time, Ailan?" Ron looked at the scattered diagrams and chuckled somewhat self-deprecatingly:
"I thought I’d finally found a breakthrough..."
Ailan nodded:
"As a result, the energy structure collapsed during testing, almost triggering a magic power fluctuation alarm on the airship."
It was a near-catastrophic experiment.
Ron had designed a compressed energy structure, trying to maintain stable energy supply while reducing volume.
But during testing, the compressed energy structure suddenly went out of control.
If not for his quick reaction, the consequences would have been unimaginable.
"Precisely because all traditional methods failed,"
Ron stood up and walked to the prototype device being constructed in the corner of the room:
"That’s why I need to rethink the entire energy architecture."
The initial version of the plan was already much smaller than traditional Simulation Battle Devices, but still much larger than his envisioned portable design.
Its core part was a transparent crystal ball the size of a fist, inside of which was suspended a soul fragment of Aksa, with additional slots available to fill with other soul fragments.
Around the fragment revolved twelve precise energy nodes, forming a complete cyclical system.
"The design logic of traditional Simulation Battle Devices is linear energy flow, where energy flows from the source to various functional modules and then mostly dissipates."
As Ron inspected the device, he thought about the paper he was about to write:
"The efficiency is extremely low, which is why they are so energy-consuming."
"Only a multi-layer nested cyclical system can be used."
His eyes sparkled with inspiration:
"Energy is no longer a one-way flow but is recycled after completing primary tasks, entering the next cycle to continue functioning."
This inspiration originally came from Ron’s deep understanding of the "Flowing Shield Wall" skill.
In that magic, energy also flows in a cyclical manner, allowing continuous defense effects far surpassing regular magic.
Ron extended this principle to the entire device’s energy architecture, creating a relatively innovative system.
"But even with this small breakthrough, I still face two core issues," he sighed softly:
"Soul fragment stability and space compression."
After securing a faculty position at the Crystal Tower, he finally had the opportunity to access more materials, including some ancient studies on soul stability.
This precious knowledge, combined with his traits such as "Insight," "Extensive Knowledge," "Three-in-One," and "Essential Insight,"
along with the spiritual power refinement techniques taught by Eve, gave him key inspiration.
This ultimately helped him design a whole new stabilization mechanism.
He began filling his thought process onto the draft paper:
"Precise control at the microscopic level allows for more refined regulation of energy flow.
Combined with the spatial attributes provided by the ’Void Gem’ and the emotional feedback energy supply of the ’Heart-devouring Stone,’ this system’s efficiency is at least double that of traditional devices."
Thinking of the "Heart-devouring Stone," Ron’s expression turned slightly complex.
This mineral could sense the user’s emotional fluctuations and magic power and convert it into sustained energy supply.
In theory, it was a perfect energy source, but it also posed risks.
When emotions were too intense, the stone might overdraw the user’s life energy, causing irreversible damage.
"This also serves as a kind of warning, adding a layer of difficulty to simulated battles. Without the cost of death, it’s hard to make real breakthroughs."
Ron continued to write down a series of algorithms and formulas: